Fire Series

-tonight we will be continuing our discussions on elemental faith. It feels a little weird to be here this late, like I should be at home in pain or something…

-we’ve already talked about earth and how sometimes living for Jesus can be a little messy, but we need to be growing. Then this morning we talked a lot about the Holy Spirit and who He is and what role he plays in our lives.

-tonight is fire, and for that we’re going to talk about passion.

-see passion makes everything bigger. [LIGHT CANDLE] take this candle, this one’s not scented. It’s a tiny little light. Honestly, if I hadn’t mentioned or held it up here you probably wouldn’t even have noticed it was lit.

-but then when you add passion [USE FLAME POWDER] suddenly things are a lot bigger and brighter and even scarier.

-there’s a difference between tiny little candle faith and passionate fireball faith. Honestly, if I was to ask you which one you’d rather play with right now, the candle or the flame powder, what would you choose?

-it’s what we all want, something bigger, crazier, even scarier. That’s part of why:

1. WE NEED PASSION IN LIFE

-think for a moment what life would be life without passion. No cheering at sporting events (“fan” short for fanatic). Dating and marriage would have no love, just hollow actions. No art or music with any feeling. No one loving their jobs, no movies or TV that invoke emotions, food just made to be eaten not tasted.

-so why does it seem a lot of times our faith lacks passion? We show up to church blah, we sing kinda, we don’t want to pray out loud, why does that happen?

-we’re supposed to be serving and living for God with everything in us. Winter Retreat two years ago:

**Mark. 12:30 -> 30“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ (NCV)

-all, all, all, all. That’s the way it is supposed to be. That’s how the church started. People with passion.

-because let’s face it, people with passion can’t be stopped. John Stuart Mill once said “One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who only have an interest.” (7701, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations).

-life is meant to be lived with passion, our faith included.

-look at the great people in history with passion:

2. THOSE WHO HAD THE FIRE

-let’s just start with the ultimate example, His name would be Jesus.

-too often we make Jesus out to be a nice little man who walked everywhere, played with children and was just an all around nice guy. Since when? Jesus was passionate about God, obviously. If you were doing something that did not line up with God or would hinder people from following God, He would let you know!

-an example most people know:

**Mark 11:15-17 -> 15They arrived at Jerusalem. Immediately on entering the Temple Jesus started throwing out everyone who had set up shop there, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of the bankers and the stalls of the pigeon merchants. 16He didn’t let anyone even carry a basket through the Temple. 17And then He taught them, quoting this text: My house was designated a house of prayer for the nations; You’ve turned it into a hangout for thieves. (MSG)

-the first thing Jesus does in the morning is kick everyone out of the Temple selling stuff. They were cheating travelers and Jesus would not allow it in God’s house.

-something most people don’t put together though, this was the second time He did it! He does it in John chapter 2 at the Passover a few years before because the merchants are doing the same thing!

-what drew crowds to Jesus was His passion for God, He taught in a way that the religious teachers didn’t teach back then, dull and bland.

-what about someone else? What about David, a man after God’s own heart? How did he feel about God? The song “Undignified” is about David, about him dancing when the Ark came home.

-he wrote many songs about God, but here’s one he didn’t write but is in Psalms with it. One you all know.

**Ps. 42:1-2 -> 1As a deer thirsts for streams of water, so I thirst for You, God. 2I thirst for the living God. When can I go to meet with Him? (NCV)

-a lot of our modern worship songs are based on songs of passion from people in the Bible.

-I got one more for you, he’s not in the Bible. John Wesley.

-I will be perfectly honest, when I first thought about coming to this church, I was kind of worried. I didn’t grow up Methodist and to me, Methodists seemed kind of dead. They just went and did their thing and that was it.